So here it is. After spending months looking at cars all over the country online and going through several iterations of different types of cars here it is. In the First phase I was looking at all cars with over 300 horsepower. There are a bunch of cars out there with over 300 horsepower. So the first pass was a weed out all expensive used cars. These included cars like Porsche Lamborghini Ferrari Rolls Royce Jaguar and even older exotic American cars like the cobra. Also the car generally needed to be four or five door. The reason to eliminate these exotic cars is they are very expensive to maintain. So that started narrowing down the field quite a bit. There were some American cars like Ford Mustang, not a 4-door car. And some Chevrolet's Fords Cadillac and a few others. Unfortunately Saab and Audi and Volvo fell somewhat into the Exotic Car range. now maybe that's not fair to Volvo but the perception is theyre expensive to maintain. So the field kept returning to cars like the Chrysler 300 a few Kias and Nissan's and Toyota. These cars aren't great at having 300 horsepower but you see them on sale with over 200,000 miles. And two cars that just kept coming to the top of the longevity list were Toyota Corolla Toyota Camry and Toyota Avalon. of course that has to be three cars.
The problem with used Toyota's is the resale value is very high. I actually saw a Camry with 228000 miles sell for $5000. I would have paid it myself! Think how ridiculous That is!
So what did I buy? Well, a Cadillac. Let's walk through it. Also it may get sold quickly, not sure yet. Its an 11 year old car with 111000 miles. It has 4 doors and 320hp. It has hail damage and needs brakes. The engine passed emissions and is strong. No rust. The dash lights work! !!
Guess how much this bad boy cost? After looking at Camrys for $10,000 that should have been sent to the junk yard, the Cadillac with reasonable miles and a big engine cost, drum roll, ... $4500. Let's think this through! If you pay $40,000 for a new Toyota or Cadillac or something the taxes are around $4,000. Uh, that's roughly what my whole car cost. I've already had people say, wow, nice car! Even with hail damage!
Now of course there is a down side. That brake job will cost around $1,000. And frankly my mechanic may poo-poo it because of maintenance costs. If you got a brake job done at a Cadillac dealer it would probably be $2500. My mechanic is Anthony. He is an angel straight from God. $1,000. And there will be more trips to the shop. Well I live alone. No big deal. So if this Cadillac has a total cost of $10, 000 the first year that is paid off and 25% of the price alone of a new one. Not to mention taxes, registration, and outrageous insurance. Not terribly detailed analysis, but the thing is almost free compared to a new car. And it is fun to drive with a Bose surround sound system! Yeah baby!
There is more downside, of course. It is stressful shopping for used cars. Lots of things can go wrong. Bad engines bad transmissions bad bad bad. But even if it takes a $5,000 transmission, it is still cheap. Way! Cheaper than a new one. The key is to line up the right support structure. Get the expensive AAA. Even if you never need it there is some peace of mind. They will tow you from almost anywhere, even if it's extra money the overall cost is tiny compared to a new car. And absolutely always have a cell phone. Also it pays to have a .38 special. Extra insurance.
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